Why Children's?

Why should parents choose Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh of UPMC – even for their child’s routine surgery?

Caring for pediatric patients is not just like caring for little adults. Everyone on the care team is dedicated to caring for kids – and only kids. This includes our radiologists and anesthesiologists.

Each patient in for surgery has a dedicated Pain Team, who takes care of the patient from before surgery until after. The Pain Team takes regular assessments of your child’s pain and employs appropriate pain control medications.

Private rooms, in addition to semi-private rooms when needed, offer a comfortable sleeping space for parents. Our patient rooms were designed to lower infection rates and noise levels and enhance privacy.

At Children’s Hospital, six of our 13 operating suites are equipped with minimally invasive technology and equipment. Our surgeons are highly experienced at performing minimally invasive pediatric surgeries. For instance:

Nearly every abdominal or chest operation, or operation on a newborn, is done using a minimally invasive approach.

Today, 99 percent of the appendectomies performed at Children’s are minimally invasive – that’s nearly 495 a year. Children’s is one of the only hospitals in western Pennsylvania performing laparoscopic pediatric appendectomies, in addition to many other abdominal and thoracic surgeries in infants and children, using minimally invasive techniques.

Hernias can be diagnosed laparoscopically, and almost 1,000 hernia operations every year are done using minimally invasive techniques.

Hypertrophic pyloric stenosis – common in babies – is treated with tiny incisions as small as 3 millimeters.